God sexuality and the selfj journal

Sexuality and the Self is a new venture in systematic theology Sarah Coakley invites the reader to re conceive the relation of sexual desire and the desire for God and through the lens of prayer practice to chart the intrinsic connection of this relation to a theology of the Trinity The goal is to integrate the demanding ascetical undertaking of prayer with the recovery of lost and neglected materials from the tradition and thus to reanimate doctrinal reflection both imaginatively and spiritually What emerges is a vision of human longing for the triune God which is both edgy and compelling Coakley s th ologie totale questions standard shibboleths on sexuality and gender and thereby suggests a way beyond current destructive impasses in the churches The book is clearly and accessibly written and will be of great interest to all scholars and students of theology God.

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Sarah Coakley is a theologian philosopher of religion and a priest of the Church of England She is Norris Hulse Professor of Divinity at the University of Cambridge. God sexuality and the selfh hh This is everything a work of theology should be and upon completing this book Sarah Coakley has valued into my list of favorite theologians yes people like me have such lists Granted I have not read any of her other work but I am looking forward to reading At the very least I hope to read the rest of the volumes in this systematic theology when they are completed. God sexuality and the self philosophy book Is this a systematic theology When I think of systematic theology books I think of a glorified outline of all the major points of Christian faith from God to angels to the Bible to end times Coakley s book is about God the Christian Trinitarian God to be precise so it basically starts where you would expect a systematic theology to start Yet it does not read like a systematic theology. Book god sexuality and the self free pdf I know I know systematic theologies CAN be engaging despite the stereotypes What I appreciated about this book is Coakley wrote it for pastors and theologians Thus while it is profoundly deep it is also engaging and well written This ties in with how she describes her purpose as what she calls theologie totale a connecting of the rational and usual methods of theology with contemplative practice True theology does not happen without contemplation God by definition cannot be an extra item in the universe a very big one to be known and so controlled by human intellect will or imagination God is rather that without which there would be nothing at all God is the source and sustainer of all being and as such the dizzying mystery encountered in the act of contemplation as precisely the blanking of the human ambition to knowledge control and mastery To know God is unlike any other knowledge indeed it is truly to be known and so transformed 44 45. God sexuality and the selfd book Further she writes in such a way as to split the difference between two extremes In contrast to a biblicist fundamentalism she takes seriously the findings of sociology psychology and especially movements in feminism On the other hand she recognizes where these fields may be deficient and where theology may have something fresh to say. Kindle god sexuality and the self download This is where one of the core points of the book can be found She recognizes an entanglement between desire for God and sexual desire for other humans Coakley argues that desire is fundamental than sex In this she says she is turning Freud on his head Where Freud said our desires for God are actually sexual desires Coakley argues our sexual desires point to a deeper desire for God. God sexuality and the self kindle free Her argument developers over the course of seven chapters The first two are mostly set up as she recasts what systemic theology is and puts forth her plans for how she will do her work The next three chapters look at desire from different angles First she analyzes the patristics and praying in the Trinity then she shares some findings form surveys with churchgoers in England and their prayer habits finally she examines icons and Christian art She wraps up the book with examinations of Augustine s and Gregory of Nyssa s writing on desire and of desire leading to spiritual growth into the mystical darkness or light beyond words. God sexuality and the self epub download There is so much to be said but one vital point to mention is in rethinking and reshaping our understanding of the Trinity Coakley emphasizes the place of the Spirit She shows how the Spirit is often demoted to third place if the Spirit is mentioned at all Often the Spirit just disappeared from portrayals of the Trinity in Christian art Part of Coakley s argument is if we reread the patristic writers and connect their ethical and practical writings on prayer and celibacy and such to their theological writings we get a fuller picture of the Trinity From this our understanding of the Trinity shifts if we start with the Spirit praying in and through us Romans 8. God sexuality and the self book free In an exciting shift then when discussing the procession of the Son and the Spirit from the Father and the whole filioque controversy she imagines the equally true procession of the Father from the Spirit What we discover in the adventure of prayer in contrast to these other routes is a gentle bu all consuming Spirit led procession into the glory of the Passion and Resurrection a royal road to a Fatherhood beyond patriarchalism There can be in God s Trinitarian ontology no Sonship which is not eternally sourced by Father in the Spirit 332. God sexuality and the self kindle free Overall a smart and challenging read for any theologically minded folks If you re on the conservative end there is stuff in here to shake you up and make you question or make you mad I guess To be fair if you re on the liberal end there is probably stuff in here to make you wonder too Of course in that I mean theologically conservative and liberal Hardcover This book is the first installment of a projected series and so Coakley devotes a substantial portion of it to various forms of methodological ground clearing She hops from one topic to another like an irritable fly skipping off of many surfaces but never quite coming to rest on one It is admittedly necessary in an academic work to carefully define one s terms and outline the contours of one s thesis but for those of us who aren t academics this volume leaves frustratingly little to sink our teeth into That said there are still some tantalizing morsels to nibble on Coakley proposes to start with the current impasse in the Church and in much of the secular culture besides over issues of gender and sexuality and to transcend this cultural stasis by proceeding up the chain of ontological priority to the inner life of the Triune God and articulating a new but entirely orthodox systematic trinitarian theology Desire is as Coakley puts it the constellating category of selfhood the ineradicable root of the human longing for God In classical Christian theology rooted as it is in Platonic idealism our actually existing human desires with their confused entanglements unreflective physicality and often selfish motivations of power and pleasure are but a pale reflection of the ideal of desire which is God s desire for us as sharers in the divine image and our own desire for God as the source of our creation The transformation of Christian life in the Spirit involves a purgative disciplining and redirection of desire towards its true source Desire is fundamental to human nature than sex whether conceived as sexual differentiation or the act of sexual intercourse because unlike sex desire is an ontological category belonging primarily to God and only secondarily to humans as a token of their createdness in the image Sex cannot rightly be ontologized in this way because sexual differentiation and desire in humans entails a certain fundamental lack which we try fleetingly to fulfill in union with our other half God of course lacks nothing In one of this volume s fascinating chapters Coakley compares the thought of two major fourth century theologians one eastern and one western as it pertains to matters of sexuality and sexual differentiation The first Gregory of Nyssa might be said to ontologize union and equality between the sexes while the second Augustine of Hippo ontologizes distinction Gregory took an ingenious reading of Genesis 1 27 splitting the Hebrew text into two clauses to suggest that the creation of humanity occurred in two parts first an original creation of an angelic humanity unencumbered by sex or even by physicality itself and only secondly just prior to the Fall the creation of male and female or the differentiation of the sexes Such a reading implies that the division of humanity into male and female was a step downwards away from an original and thus ontologically prior non sexed humanity Even astonishingly Gregory suggests in his treatise On Those Who Have Fallen Asleep that at the final resurrection our bodies will again lose their sexual differentiation and everyone will become quasi female vessels of the divine life Thus for Gregory sexual difference is to be transcended by a union of uni sexed and thus equal beings Augustine on the other hand takes the same passage from Genesis to mean that humanity has always in the ontological sense had sexual difference that the woman is ultimately dependent on the man and that the sexes must live in an ordered hierarchy While irritating to our modern sensibilities Augustine s perspective has the merit of preserving the distinction of the sexes and thus the dignity of human sexual differentiation as such Gregory and Augustine thus found themselves on opposite sides of a timeless dilemma for human sexual duality how do we preserve the unity and equality of the sexes by virtue of their shared humanity while also affirming that there is an inherent value in the fact that men and women are different How do we preserve equality and difference at the same time Where else in Christian thought do we find this simultaneous emphasis on equality and difference Of course we find it in the Holy Trinity The three hypostases are distinct from one another but united in the Godhead three persons in one essence. God sexuality and the self book pdf The key to transcending the aporia of equality and difference thus lies in a proper articulation of God s trinitarian nature For Coakley this task is localized particularly in the elevation of the Holy Spirit to its orthodox position of coequality with the other hypostases Early trinitarian theologians tacitly subordinated the role of the Spirit by espousing a linear understanding of the trinity whereby the Holy Spirit was merely the first rung in a ladder of divine ascent leading ultimately to the contemplation of the Father and Son Coakley devotes a chapter to historical representations of the Trinity in iconography to show how the Christian imagination has often fallen into the trap of making the Spirit a mere add on to the dyad of Father and Son The Spirit certainly does lead one to the contemplation of the Father and Son but as Coakley points out it is equally true that Father and Son are met transformatively in the Spirit It is necessary for Christians to reincorporate the coeternality of the Spirit into their life of prayer and so recover an understanding of a God who pacifies the world by burning through every human wall marked either or Hardcover This is a magnificent work Coakley has authored what I believe to be the most important systematic theology since Robert Jenson granted far from an authority in the field The Spirit of God is shot through the pages of this book Tolle legu my friends or however you spell it Hardcover This book deserves a savoring read the kind that is accompanied by a hot beverage silence and a dictionary It s worth the investment of attention and focus Coakley has written essays that served as precursors to her first of five planned extended essays on core systematic theology subjects and here we see the payoff of an extended treatment in her frankly stunning consideration of the Trinity If one has not read much in the way of systematic theology the magnitude of the contribution Coakley offers to the field might not register In my opinion Coakley has written something that should change the way systematic theologians approach dealing with the Trinity In short she puts forth a trinitarian theology that actually takes seriously issues of gender Coakley argues that this is not peripheral to the trinitarian project but central and the person of the Holy Spirit Coakley shines a floodlight on these two neglected gaping holes in trinitarian thought It has a blinding effect in the sense that she makes it clear that the trinitarian project cannot move forward without dealing with those holes She is right. God sexuality and the self religion pdf Coakley uses two unconventional methods to make her case which in this case amounts to a fully orbed theological approach Like many of the early Christian trinitarian thinkers did in their own time Basil of Caesarea comes to mind Coakley turns to the liturgical practice of churches to work through what trinitarianism should be in the 21st century She offers two case studies of charismatic communities to help navigate one of those gaping holes As a charismatic myself there was a certain amount of vindication to be found here as the charismatic movement has largely been brushed aside as not offering much by way of theological substance The second unconventional method addresses the other gaping hole in trinitarian thought issues of gender How do we speak of God How do we image God Because whether we like it or not Christians have been imprinting certain gendered qualities on the Trinity for centuries Coakley draws upon an extended exploration of Christian visual art and depictions of the Trinity to demonstrate the Christian tradition s flexibility creativity and struggle with trinitarianism and gender While Coakley treats the questions of gender and the Holy Spirit separately to a point she pulls the threads of her whole argument together by engaging with Gregory of Nyssa and Augustine Here she finds a prayer based model of engaging with the Trinity that reorients re situates and grounds human desire in divine desire Desire even fallen desire is the precious clue woven into the crooked human heart that ever reminds it of its relatedness and its source 58 59 The payoff is that trinitarianism reconsidered can undercut damaging hierarchal understandings of God and shed light on the truly participatory relationship with the Trinity When humans come into authentic relation with God as Trinity through the Spirit their values and orders of hierarchy change they are not imitating God thereby but rather being radically transformed by ecstatic participation in the Spirit 321 22 Hardcover When does volume 2 go to press I ll be re reading this til it does Like the grown up theologian s version of a YA dystopian trilogy Hardcover

God, Sexuality, and the Self: An Essay on the Trinity By Sarah Coakley

0521552281

9780521552288

388

Hardcover

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God Sexuality and the Self An Essay on the TrinityA very fine book with rich claims about the ways that contemplative prayer may revise our view of the Trinity particularly the messy imbrication in the ways that the doctrine of the Trinity interfaces with human erotic desire and gender hierarchy As a non expert in theology my engagement with the thesis was particularly aided by the structural metacommentary in the writing the bibliographic notes and the glossary Would have liked a fuller introduction to contemplation as part of it there are very fine bibliographic notes on many of the other theological topics in the book There is a glossary definition but that s it In addition I found the hint about the way the source role of the SPirit in the Trinity interrogates of the twoness of gender division in the last chapter intriguing but WAAAAAY too coy Also I ll bet contemplation isn t the only way here Hardcover Drinking game Every time Sarah Coakley writes something like If I m right about this take a shot You ll get drunk but it may help with the readability of this book First of all I abhorred Coakley s writing style The informal chatty I wanna be your pal tone may work in lecture halls I can imagine it is quite engaging but in writing it comes across as grating prone to redundancies and manipulative Like most post modern feminisms Cokaley s feminist theology is assertive than argumentative She doesn t argue for her points she asserts why you should agree with them at face value and by fragmenting them into a verbal soup Though she initially makes a big deal of her theologie totale it s exact function is somehwat obscure and by chapter 7 she seems to have forgotten about it almost completely and is just ranting about the patriarchy throwing the word around as if it is going out of style and making distinctly psycholinguistic arguments rather than theological ones. God sexuality and the self book pdf Now is this book all bad No If you can get past her writing there are interesting themes here Coakley does well in tackling what she percieves as the three main objections to Systematic Theology and she very fruitfully nuances past uncharitable interpretations of the patristic fathers. God sexuality and the selfd bible verse Yet the overall perception is that there are too many chefs in the kitchen She flits from thinker to thinker without engaging truly and deeply with anyone she ll suddenly drop in a completely redundant assessment from an ecologist then drop it as if it never happened Her pneumatology is interesting though I think she is unduly harsh towards the early and institutional church I would agree with her that you can t just slap a feminine aspect onto the Trinity and then hope all objections go away yet at times it seems it is exactly what she does when she vehemently denounces the implicit primacy of the dyadic Father Son and exalts in the idea of the primacy of the Spirit instead Which she has firmly rooted to risqu sectarianism ecstatic experiences of the divine and female political and sexual power. What is self according to socrates pdf Following in the usual trends of post modern feminism she is obsessed with sex and gender and sees everything through this lens which leads to some awkward overinterpretations and conclusions that are really only obvious if you agreed with her underlying presumptions before the assertions are made It s very blunt and awkward metaphorical readings. Kindle god sexuality and the self free She takes a stand for gendered differentation yet fails to properly define what this means to her which muddles her point about it s cosmic lability and the problematic third which is part of the realm of humanity as well. God sexuality and the selfi image In her suggestion that the East West split is somewhat overexaggerated and false which I can support or sympathize with she somewhat curiously suggest that the definitional split is primarily down to a post revolutionary Russian Orthodox need to separate itself from Western neo Thomism She seems then to equate all orthodoxy with Russian Orthodoxy and only in the last chapter does she give a half hearted oh right the filioque discussion which she frankly seems bored with from start to finish and which only serves as an impetus to spend the final pages screeching patriarchy In this sentence were the words scummy and patriarchal necessary especially scummy Ugh this is what puts me off feminism as a whole Its appropriateness inner trinitarianly means that the TRUE meaning of Father is to be found in the Trinity not dredged from the scummy realm of human patriarchal fatherhoodSo was it cogent Not really It s like she s thrown a ton of things into a bowl and is then trying to stitch it all together but the final product is lumpy and uneven and worse yet it is sometimes unclear if Coakley has much original thoughts of her own or if she s simply laboring to tie together other theologians thoughts with a modern feminist sensibility trying to fit God into feminism Her expressed goal was to give the objections to Systematic Theology a solid refutation in a theological framing but she ultimately comes across as someone serving two masters trying to have her cake and eating it too. Book god sexuality and the self pdf Much like Robert Jenson she seems to have a deep suspicion of early conciliary efforts and doctrinal formulations yet at least the former digs into the history of it in a less reductionist way Here it s most church bad Wants to rein in and control spirit lead path good Sectarian and nebulous but women yay It just comes across as extremely one sided in Coakely at times though she does nuance particular arguments against e. God sexuality and the selfj journal article Ultimately for me as a reader if this is representative of why Systematic Theology is necessary then I m gonna be part of the crowd singing hey hey ho ho Systematic Theology has got to go I m being somewhat facticious here it is probably Coakley s feminist theology I ve no patience for rather than the systematic aspects I hope I won t have to read Coakley again and I ll only do so for an assignment If you like Judith Butler and her kind you ll probably find some interesting stuff in here If you don t then there are still a couple of pages which may be of interest But I can t genuinely recommend it it s floaty verbose theory purporting contemplative practicality yet contemplation is dropped after a couple of chapters and a lot of the writing is probably gibberish to people outside of academia So basically top down gender theory hoping to help us mind shift to pneumatological primacy Thanks but no thanks Hardcover Reading this book has revived my faith in theological writing dead the past 6 years if you have to ask you shouldn t and overwhelmed me jn a good way It s beautiful Prayers Holy A living theology I ve never read anything like this It s revolutionized my prayer life and my thoughts on theology Read it Slowly Like you would a book of poetry Sarah Coakley We re not done Here s to reading everything you wrote Thank you I never rate books 5 stars This book is worth it Hardcover Coakley s main point Anything we say about God as Trinity is also talking about the God given God leading desire that is bound up in turn with gender and power in our souls and relationships It s an excellent point one she s been building to for decades As systematic theology this is superlative work both precise and accessible. God sexuality and the selfd belief I ll leave it there for now because I m hoping to place a proper review in print later this year Hardcover Very rarely do I get upset when reading theological books but Coakley managed with that feat Her theology totale is just incomprehensible to me I don t see how it is in any way anything new What is it that she wants to bring in Is it the emphasis on the ordinary church congregation If so then I think it is a good thing But very many theologians even Barth or particularly Barth perhaps have made theology that is close to the ordinary Christian believer in a particular church context If it is the inclusion of the Spirit then I think it is simply misleading Coakley is misrepresenting some of the theological development in the 20th century in order to make a point This is not rare but it feels quite unacceptable when she so strongly reacts against the trinitarian revival because of their ignorance of certain trends in 20th century theology. What is self according to the bible That comes to the thing that might have upset me the most The critique against the trinitarian revival In some sense I have a feeling that this is a book in reaction against Colin Gunton s theology Gunton is not mentioned terribly often but is certainly there between the lines It is obvious that Coakley is a platonism Gunton is an avid critique against platonism tendencies in theology Gunton was too critical against Augustine Coakley wants to emphasise the similarities between Augustine and the Cappadocia fathers Coakley stresses the apophatic and mystical tradition particularly in Gregory of Nyssa while Gunton argues that those parts are precisely the problems with the Cappadocian fathers And the list can go on Of course theological debate and difference of opinion is fine and happens all the time What really gets to me is how Coakley ends the book with a suggestion of a metaphysics or less based on the doctrine of the Trinity and having critiqued the trinitarian revival ists for or less that things. God sexuality and the selfe selfie pdf It is to put things too strongly perhaps but I don t feel like Coakley is intellectually honest or fair in this book I should also say in fairness that I am probably quite far away from Coakley theologically but I have read many books that I disagree with much than this and still walked away with some furthered knowledge and insights I have learnt from this book too particularly in terms of patristics where I think Coakley is very good and helpful But if she critiques Zizioulas Gunton and the likes for reading the Fathers with a particular bias nothing in this book makes me convinced that Coakley is not doing the same What is helpful is that her bias is different from Zizoulas which is good in terms of a critical perspective on the personalist reading of the Cappadocians for example Hardcover.

, God sexuality and the self philosophy book g Augustine she sheds no light on the nuances of doctrine suggesting its beneficial aspects along with the problematic ones.Its actually kind of fun and engaging